Connecting structure



March 23, 1965 D. B. MORITZ CONNECTING STRUCTURE Original Filed Feb. 26, 1963 INVENTOR. DONALD B. More/ 72 BY Mj/ ,JWQF

ATTORNEYS 3,174,779 CONNECTING STRUCTURE Donald B. Moritz, Arlington Heights, 111., assignor to Waco-Porter Corporation, Schiller Park, llL, a corporation of Minnesota Continuation of application Ser. No. 261,142, Feb. 26, 1963. This application Feb. 17, 1964, Ser. No. 346,379 1 Claim. (Cl. 28753.5)

The present application is a continuation of application Serial No. 261,142, filed February 26, 1963, and now abandoned and entitled Connecting Structure.

My invention relates to means for detachably joining associated parts of a knockdown skeletonized structure such as prefabricated scaffolds and the like, and is a modification of and improvement upon the structure disclosed in Patent No. 2,635,717.

When structures built in accordance with the aboveidentified patent are put into continued, rough service, certain of the parts thereof not uncommonly become bent or broken so as to render the device relatively inefficient, if not inoperative. Thus, repair or rebuilding is not uncommon. I refer in greater particularity to the relatively long inner leg 24a of the U-shaped locking member 24 which is totally unshielded from engagement with the perforated end of the brace member 13 and consequently frequently becomes bent and distorted by engagement therewith so as to make sliding engagement thereof with the relatively small reduced side portions 20a of the pin 20 difficult, if not impossible. Additionally I refer to the fact that the diametric reducing of the pin 20 as at 20:: so weakens same as to frequently cause same to be bent, if not completely broken oil, at this point due to impact and/or stress.

The primary object of my invention is the provision of a device which, while operating in the general manner of the structure of Patent No. 2,635,717, completely avoids the difilculties above pointed out. To this end I provide a bracket-element which is secured fast directly to the side of the supporting standard and which defines an elongated open-ended guide-acting slot, the axis of which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the standard and which slidably receives the relatively long leg of the U-shaped locking member and shields and protects same from engagement with and impact by the brace member. Additionally, the pin is secured to and carried directly by the bracket element and, consequently, by virtue of its having no reduced portions, it withstands damage from impact or twisting.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a device of the class immediately above described which is inexpensive to produce, is rugged and durable in construction, and which operates in a foolproof manner with an absolute minimum of effort and instruction.

The above and still further objects of my invention will become apparent from the following detailed specification, appended claims and attached drawings.

Referring to the drawings wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a scaffold structure showing my invention applied thereto;

FIG. 2 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary view in side elevation of the connected scaffold structure of FIG. I viewed as indicated by line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view in elevation as seen from right to left of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a view in horizontal section as seen from the line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

Referring with greater particularity to the drawings and specifically .to FIG. 1, a knockdown scaffold-supporting device or structure of one type is shown, com- EJ74 779 Patented Mar. 23, 1985 ice prising a pair of spaced load-supporting members identified in their entirety by the numeral 10 and including vertical standards 11, preferably formed from steel pipe or the like. The standards 11 associated with each pair of load-supporting members 10 are connected by suitable cross members 12 and are provided at their lower ends with supporting foot plates 13, all in conventional manner. The crisscrossed brace members are identified by numeral 14 and are connected to the standards 11, by means of hollow box-like bracket members now to be described.

Shown as being welded or otherwise rigidly secured to the sides of the supporting standards 11 are vertically elongated rear side bracket elements 15 which in part cooperate to define openended guide-acting apertures 16, the axis of each of which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of its respective standard 11. Welded or otherwise rigidly secured to and projecting laterally outwardly from the outer side bracket elements 17 and, preferably intermediate the opposite side spacing bracket end elements 18 thereof, is a pin 19, the longitudinal axis of which extends through the longitudinal axis of its respective standard 11 and is normal to the longitudinal axis thereof. Each of the pins 19 is adapted to slidably receive thereon the flattened, apertured end 219 of a brace member 14, as shown particularly in FIG. 2. For a purpose which will hereinafter become apparent, the laterally outer end portions of the pins 19 are formed to define vertically extended slots 21.

Adapted to cooperate with the brackets 15 and pins 19 to detachably connect the apertured ends 20 of the brace members 14 to the standards 11 are inverted U-shaped lock members identified in their entirety by 22. Each of the lock members 22 comprises an upper, horizontally disposed connecting portion 23, which overlies its respective pin 19, a relatively long inner leg 24, which is received and guided in the slot 16 provided by the bracket. elements 15, 17 and 18, and a relatively short leg 25. As shown, the short leg 25 is disposed in the same general vertical plane as the slot- 21 in the outer end portion of its cooperating pin 19 and is flattened at its lower end as indicated at as to define a locking tongue adapted to extend through and be slidably received in its cooperating slot 21 upon lowering movements of the locking member 22, as illustrated in full lines particularly in FIGS. 2 and 3. It will be here noted that it is engagement of the cross members 23 with the upper limits of cooperating bracket elements which positively limits lowering movements of each locking member 22. The extreme lower ends of the locking tongues 26 are provided with apertures 27 through which cotter keys, split rings or the like, not shown, may be detachably inserted for the purpose of maintaining the locking tongues 26 in their operative locking positions thereshown.

On their extreme lower ends each of the relatively long legs 24 is formed, intermediate its opposite sides 28, to define a laterally outwardly projecting stop member in the form of a lug 29. As shown by dotted lines in FIG. 2, it is engagement of these stop lugs 29 with the undersurface 20' of their bracket elements which limits upward movements of the locking members 22 beyond the dotted line position thereof, in which position it should be obvious that a flattened, apertured end 20 of a cross member 14 may be inserted on a given pin 19, or removed therefrom. It is important to note that the axial dimensions of each of the pins 19 between the slots 21 therein and the outer side element 17 of their cooperating bracket, is such as to permit at least two apertured ends 29 to be received thereon. In this manner any given number of 3 units such as shown in FIG. 1 may be locked in side-byside relationship.

FIGS. 2 and 4 perhaps best illustrate the protection afforded by the above-identified structure. Even when used under the most rough and rugged conditions, it is substantially damage-proof. Initially, I refer to the protection which each elongated bracket member provides for its relatively long leg 24-, and particularly the part snugly encased therein. In this regard, it is important to note that the portion which depends therefrom when the elements are in their operative locking positions, or alternatively, the portion of the leg 24 which projects upwardly from the bracket element when the parts are in their inoperative positions, is so closely positioned with respect to their cooperating standards 11 that almost nobending can result even by the hardest of impacts. Furthermore, because of the axial dimensions of the leg guiding and supporting aperture 16, it is virtually impossible to twist or bend the relatively long leg 24 received therein. Consequently, distortion or bending from this source is almost totally eliminated. Finally, because the pins 19 are unweakened throughout their axial dimensions, bending and breakage arising from this source has also been eliminated.

My invention has been thoroughly tested and found to be completely satisfactory for the accomplishment of the above objects, and while I have shown a preferred embodiment thereof, I wish it to be understood that same may be capable of modification without departure from the scope and spirit of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

Means for detachably connecting a tubular load-supporting standard of a prefabricated knockdown scaffold structure to a cooperating brace member, said means comprising:

(a) a bracket element fast on one side of said supporting standard, said bracket element comprising a first side wall, a pair of parallel end walls normal to said first side wall and integral therewith, and a second side comprising a pair of opposed wall portions each secured at one of its ends to said standard in spaced relation to said end walls, said wall portions being in parallel spaced relation to said first side Wall, extending normal to said end walls and being integral therewith at their other ends, with the ends of said opposed wall portions secured to said standard being l spaced from each other a distance less than the radius of the tubular standard so as to prevent the tubular standard from extending within the bracket, said wall portions providing therebetween an open substantially rectangular box structure having parallel spaced supporting and guiding front, rear and end wall portions,

(b) a pin fast on said bracket element and projecting laterally outwardly therefrom on an axis extending through the longitudinal axis of said aperture and normal to the said axis of said standard and adapted to slidably receive the apertured end of said brace member,

(c) an inverted U-shaped lock member,

(d) said inverted U-shaped lock member comprising an upper connecting portion overlying said end of said brace member on said pin,

(e) a relatively long inner leg of slightly less rectangular cross section than said box structure provided by said spaced front, rear and end walls of said bracket element to be slidably received therewithin and guided thereby,

(f) and a relatively short leg generally parallel to said inner leg and guided and supported thereby in a plane laterally spaced with respect to said brace member on said pin,

(g) the lower end portion of said relatively short leg being adapted to extend through a vertical slot in the outer end portion of said pin,

(/1) means for detachably supporting said relatively short leg in its operative position wherein it extends through said pin, and

(1) means on the lower end portion of said relatively long leg limiting upward movements thereof with respect to said bracket element when said relatively short leg has been elevated to a position to permit removal of said brace member from said pin.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS CARL W. TOMLIN, Primary Examiner. 

